The legacy of the Miami Showband is about more than just music, it is bringing people together, a survivor of the loyalist ambush which targeted its members has said.
Singer Fran O’Toole, guitarist Tony Geraghty and trumpeter Brian McCoy were shot dead on a roadside close to Newry on July 31 1975 after having been pulled over at a bogus security forces checkpoint.
Two of the loyalist terrorists from the Ulster Volunteer Force were also killed in the incident, when a bomb they placed on the bus exploded prematurely.
Survivors Des Lee and Stephen Travers were among those who gathered at the roadside where the atrocity happened on Thursday to remember their bandmates.
It was the first of a series of events, including in Newry and Dublin, being held on Thursday to mark the 50th anniversary.
Mr Travers said 50 years of tears have dried up and they want to tell the whole world of the legacy of the Miami Showband.
“It’s far more than a band at this stage because bands come and go, and music comes and goes, and styles change, and if you were to ask anybody under 50 years of age to name all of the members of the Rolling Stones, I’m sure they’d have a problem,” he said.
“These things come and go, but the legacy of the Miami Showband is one that I am enormously proud of, and it is simply this: when people came to see us, whether they were Catholic, Protestant, Unionist, Nationalist, they left sectarianism outside the door of the dance hall and they saw each other as human beings, and they danced with each other, and sometimes they even fell in love.”
Father Brian D’Arcy opened the commemoration at the site on the Buskhill Road, hailing the survivors as “proving that music and goodness survives”.
“That’s what we’re celebrating today, the survival of good, music and peace, and joy and bravery,” he said, adding a prayer for peaceful rest to all who died at the spot.
All those gathered said the Lord’s Prayer together, before the hymn Abide With Me was played.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill did not attend the event, but in a message said she could not be there but described a “deeply traumatic event for everyone, and remains a painful reminder of our troubled past”.
“I commend you all for your commitment to remembering your friends by celebrating their lives and the joy of music they brought to so many in their tragically short lives, I truly hope that while never forgetting the pain of the past we continue to move forward as a society towards a peaceful, inclusive and better future for all of our people,” she said.
In a post on the social media platform X, Secretary of State Hilary Benn wrote: “Today, our thoughts are with the families of the victims, and the survivors, of the abhorrent Miami Showband Massacre 50 years ago.
“Let us remain determined to help build a better and more peaceful shared future for all the people of Northern Ireland.”
William Frank Godfrey, a DJ who used to present the Miami Showband on stage, was among those gathered for the roadside commemoration.
“I used to play before them, and I’ll never forget Fran O’Toole, his main song was ‘clap your hands, stamp your feet’, and he had the fans eating out of his hands,” he said.
“We’re still grieving and we still miss the band, they were very, very popular, not only in Ireland but in many other countries as well.
“I lift my hat to them today in memory of the three lads and the survivors. We miss the music and thank them for the music. We will always have great memories of happy times.”
Earlier, Mr Lee said he remembers “every single thing in the finest detail” from the atrocity in 1975.
“It was the most horrendous scene I have ever seen in my life, when I got up off the grass and I had to make a run up that embankment to get help.
“When I got onto the main road, it was the worst sight anyone could ever imagine,” he told the BBC Radio Ulster.
“They were my brothers, you know, three of my brothers.”
While there has been criticism of a loyalist band parade planned to take place in Portadown on Saturday to remember one of the attackers, Mr Lee said he has “no problem with that whatsoever”.
“They are entitled to commemorate their dead as much as we are entitled to commemorate ours,” he said.
He was, however, critical of the UK Government over its handling of the past, saying he feels they are doing a “dreadful job”.
“They’re trying to push all the families under the carpet and hope that it all goes away, and as long as I’m alive, I will fight for Fran, Brian and Tony,” he said.
Mr Lee said he expected the anniversary will be an “extremely difficult day”.
“My whole philosophy in life now is forgive and forget and move on,” he said.
“I don’t hold any grudge. What happened to my friends was appalling but I don’t want to live for the rest of my life living in the past.
“But there’s one thing we must never forget: Fran O’Toole, Brian McCoy and Tony Geraghty.”
He described their only weapons as having been instruments to entertain audiences “during that awful time” in Northern Ireland in the 1970s.
“Fran had a microphone, Brian had a trumpet, and Tony had a guitar. That was the weapons that they had during that awful time in Northern Ireland, bringing two hours of peace and joy and happiness and dance and love and kindness and everything that went with it,” he said.
“That was our job to entertain those people for two hours, no matter what religion, no matter what creed.
“We were a band that were mixed, and we had never any problems regarding religion or anything. Our job was to entertain people, and that’s what we did.”
